Phone prefixes in St-Jean, QC

In numbers

In-service prefixes

35

Telephone numbers covered

350,000

Carriers

13

Area codes

3

Provinces and territories

1

First assignment

July 4, 2001

Most recent assignment

March 26, 2025

St-Jean’s share of its area codes

Within area code 450, St-Jean accounts for only 21 of 775 prefixes (2.7%): the code is dominated by Granby and spread over 129 rate centres. Within area code 579, St-Jean accounts for only 13 of 644 prefixes (2.0%): the code is dominated by Granby and spread over 126 rate centres. Within area code 354, St-Jean accounts for only 1 of 56 prefixes (1.8%): the code is dominated by Valleyfield and spread over 49 rate centres.

Who holds these numbers

Bell Canada holds the largest share at 10 prefixes, 28.6% of the total, ahead of 12 other carriers. Code by code: in 450, Bell Canada leads with 9 of 21 prefixes ahead of 7 others; in 579, Iristel Inc. leads with 3 of 13 prefixes ahead of 7 others; Cogeco Connexion Inc. is the only holder in 354. No carrier holds prefixes in every one of St-Jean’s 3 area codes, while 9 appear in just one.

Wireless and wireline

6 of St-Jean’s 35 prefixes (17.1%) are held by carriers whose registered name marks a wireless business: Bell Mobility, TELUS Mobility, Fido Solutions Inc and Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless). Wireline prefixes still outnumber them, carried by Bell Canada, Videotron Ltd, Iristel Inc and Fibernetics Corporation. This is a sort by name, not a licence lookup, and a mobile prefix may have been ported to another network since.

How the allocation was built up

St-Jean’s dated assignments run from 2001 to 2025. The busiest period was 2015–2019, when 7 prefixes went to 5 carriers. 10 prefixes (29%) carry no date in the register: these are the historic pre-1999 assignments, the wireline bedrock of the rate centre. Since 2020 another 4 prefixes have been added, so the rate centre is still growing.

St-Jean’s oldest prefixes, the ones the register leaves undated, belong to Bell Canada and Videotron Ltd: these carriers made up the landscape before competition arrived. The first dated assignment went to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Wireless) in 2001. The most recent arrivals are Cogeco Connexion Inc. (2025), IXICA Communications Inc. (2022) and Bell Canada (2016), a sign that new carriers are still asking for numbers in St-Jean.

St-Jean’s 35 prefixes provide 350,000 numbers, which corresponds to a mid-sized city or a well-established suburb that every major carrier wants a slice of.

No single carrier dominates St-Jean: the leader, Bell Canada, holds only 28.6% of the prefixes against 12 competitors, a sign of a highly fragmented market where cable companies, mobility brands and VoIP providers weigh as much as the incumbent.

Allocation is mature: only 16.0% of the dated prefixes are less than ten years old, most having been handed out in 2015–2019, and 10 prefixes go back to the undated monopoly era. New St-Jean numbers mostly come out of blocks that were assigned long ago.

10 undated in the register.

Dialling a St-Jean number

St-Jean is served by 3 overlaid area codes (450, 579 and 354). A 354 number is no more “out of town” than a 450 one; from abroad, dial +1 and the full ten digits.

The numbering neighbourhood

St-Jean shares area codes 450, 579 and 354 with at least 20 other rate centres, including Granby, Joliette, St-Jerome, St-Hyacinthe, Longueuil, Ste-Therese, St-Lambert and Sorel. The largest of them, Granby, holds 52 prefixes in 354, 450 and 579; the smallest on the list, St-Vincent-de-Paul, has just 17.

What a St-Jean number tells you

A number attached to St-Jean tells you that its prefix was issued to a carrier for this rate centre in Quebec, most often Bell Canada. It does not tell you where the handset is today: a subscriber may have ported the number to any of the 13 carriers present here or to a VoIP service usable anywhere. Nor does it tell you who is calling: caller ID can be spoofed, and a Quebec area code is easy to borrow to look local.

Reading a register entry for St-Jean: code 450-346 is recorded for Bell Canada, so every 450-346-XXXX number (10,000 possible) descends from that assignment. “St-Jean, Quebec” there names a rate centre, not a municipality, and several area codes overlay it.

Every St-Jean prefix

Each row is an in-service central-office code recorded for St-Jean, with its original holder and year of assignment.

Allocated prefixes

All 35 in-service prefixes, grouped by rate centre.

Elsewhere in Quebec